HIDDEN

Swim

The howling of wolves that I had heard moments earlier was cleared away from my senses as a new tune took hold of my attention- singing.

From the inside of the Tardis, I could see pods of whales swimming under the surface of the glistening ocean, hearing their tunes echo trhough the deep waters.

Only a few meters away from my face, a school of tiny krill and fish swam about, them along with the ocean being kept away from entering the Tardis thanks to the shields.

"Alright, you've brought us underwater," I said, focusing on the ocean outside, "But you didn't tell me to pack a bathing suit, so I'm hoping we're not going for a swim?"

He chuckled.

"You've guessed properly, Clara. We're here to observe a creature that will help us find what's been cuasing our restlessness," the Doctor repilied.

"Underwater? Are the fishes keeping us awake?" I said with sass, but at this point ai couldn't help it. Fatigue, wolves, just a bit too much for one night.

"Just pay close attention to the krill." the Doctor said.

I did as he told me, watching the small creatures swim around, feeding on the plankton around it.

Suddenly, the krill vanished from sight. Not teleport, or swim away, they simply vanished.

"Find anything interesting?" The Doctor asked from behind me.

"The krill, they've vanished, they were just there a moment ago," I replied.

"Ah, but that's what's interesting about it. The krill have 'vanished,' or so it seems at first. But now, let me adjust the Tardis' light settings on the shield."

I began to wonder what the Doctor could have been talking about, which was something I did often when traveling with him.

The Doctor flipped a few switches behind me, and the ocean surrounding ocean had turned into a purplish tint; the Doctor was changing the Tardis' shield.

"Now, Clara, look closer at where the krill just were, particulalry at the close by rocks. With the new adjusted light, do you see anything different?"

I concentrated on where the Doctor had told me to focus, and there it was, among the rocks, I saw perhaps the largest squid I have ever laid my eyes on, feeding on even larger crustaceans than the ones I had seen earlier. My jaw dropped as I realized that it glowed green, catching prey that seemed unaware of the creature about to devour them.

I turned at looked at the Doctor for an explanation; my look of shock giving him a small laugh.

"The squid wasn't there earlier, and I know I couldn't have missed a creature that massive," I said as I walked back towards the interior of the Tardis.

"Care to explain, Doctor?"

"It simpler than you think it is," the Doctor said, "it was camouflaging, pigments in its body allow it to reflect and refract just the proper colors, making it seem invisible and hence undetectable to its prey. I adjusted The Tardis' shield to detect those refleccted colors and make it appear as a different color, in this case, green. Fascinating, wouldn't you say?"

The Doctor's tone was both serious and curious, accompanied with a wide grin that spread from ear to ear.

As usual I was astounded about how simple the explanation was to what seemed like an extremely complicated problem, and the Doctor could tell with my facial expression how surprised I was.

Trying my best to move on from the fact a nearly missed a giant squid that was ten time larger than a bus, I focused on the question at hand:

"So the squid, can camouflage. Is what's keeping me up all night?" I questioned the Doctor.